Immigration Bill In Doubt After Vote - Racist Ads Aren't Helping
WASHINGTON (AP) - A fragile compromise that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants risks coming unraveled after the Senate voted 49-48 to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide U.S. employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually.
FYI - WHITE PEOPLE AREN'T THE ONLY ONES TICKED OFF ABOUT THIS!!!
The Bush White House, business interests, and their congressional allies, were already angry that the temporary worker program had been cut in half from its original 400,000-person-a-year target. A five-year sunset is believed to be another cause for the precarious bipartisan coalition to unravel.
An amendment by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., ending a new point system for those seeking permanent resident "green cards" after five years rather than 14 years, received no takers.
Obama's amendment and others were seen as potentially fatal blows to a bill seeking to tighten borders, hike penalties for those who hire illegals and give many of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.
The Senate voted 51-46 to reject a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to bar criminals - including those ordered by judges to be deported - from gaining legal status.Democrats siphoned support from Cornyn's proposal by winning adoption of a rival version that would bar a more limited set of criminals, including certain gang members and sex offenders, from gaining legalization.
Cornyn, however, prevailed on making it easier to locate and deport illegal immigrants whose visa applications are rejected. Cornyn said legal authorities should know if applicants have criminal records that would warrant their deportation.
The original bill would have barred law enforcement agencies from seeing applications for so-called Z visas, which can lead to citizenship if granted.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., alone among his party's presidential aspirants in backing the immigration measure, opposed Cornyn's bid and backed the Democratic alternative offered by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.